Joe Lieberman's decision to run as an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate from Connecticut after his monumental upset loss to anti-war challenger Ned Lamont is a classic example of the kind of self-interested arrogance that characterizes so many elected officials who have been in office too long.

After being in the rarified air of Washington politics for 18 years, Lieberman has come to believe he's entitled to remain as the junior senator from Connecticut, even though the majority of Democratic primary voters thought otherwise.

By deciding, even before the votes of the Aug. 8 primary were cast, that he would run as an independent if he lost the primary, Lieberman showed crass disloyalty to the Democratic party and its voters who had supported him all these years, and demonstrated that the election, at least for him, wasn't about what's best for Connecticut and the country, but what was best for Joe Lieberman. In choosing to continue his campaign, even though rejected by voters of his own party, Lieberman showed himself to be the sorest of sore losers.

While the polls clearly showed that Lieberman's blind and wrongheaded support for Bush's Iraq war was the key reason he was defeated, it was also apparent by the post-election comments of his previously loyal supporters that the once popular former vice-presidential candidate had completely lost touch with his constituents. His positions and his values were simply no longer theirs.

On a variety of issues, Lieberman has moved out of the mainstream of Connecticut politics. From his support of the Dick Cheney "no lobbyist left behind" energy bill (which no Democrat or Republican from the Northeast supported), to his endorsement of the government's intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, to his opposition to requiring hospitals to provide emergency contraceptives to rape victims, Lieberman has supported positions that have much more appeal in Alabama than they do in the very blue state of Connecticut.

All the while, Bush's "favorite Democrat" claims to be a loyal and "devoted" Democrat.

To the Democratic establishment, however, Lieberman is now perceived as anything but loyal. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic Party, has called upon Lieberman to drop out of the race after his primary loss. Sen. John Kerry said he was making a "huge mistake" running as an independent. Kerry was also highly critical of Lieberman's constant parroting of the administration's Iraq war talking points, stating, "to adopt the rhetoric of Dick Cheney, who has been wrong about almost everything he has said about Iraq shows you just exactly why he got in trouble with the Democrats there (in Connecticut)."

Even Hillary and Bill Clinton, who were Lieberman supporters before the primary, are now endorsing Lamont. In describing their decision, the Clintons pointed out the obvious: Connecticut Democratic voters have spoken. To continue to support Lieberman now that he has lost the primary would be a slap at the process, and insulting to all who went to the polls on primary day to choose their nominee.

Republicans, on the other hand, have found their candidate. With the Republican nominee, Alan Schlesinger, receiving only 4 percent in a recent poll, the Republican hierarchy, from GW to Karl Rove, to all the Fox News talking heads, down to just about every Connecticut Republican of standing, has thrown their support (either explicit or implicit) to Lieberman. It has become abundantly clear that Republicans feel they can gain more by supporting Lieberman against what they like to describe as the liberal-dominated, anti-war party of those who "cut and run," than they can by backing their own party's nominee. Talk about cynicism.

While polls right after the primary showed Lieberman leading among all likely voters, that lead has now shrunk to a mere two points, and is trending in Ned Lamont's direction. It would seem Joe Lieberman's only chance at being reelected to his fourth term is to fool the people one more time by causing them to mistakenly confuse the unjustified war in Iraq with the legitimate and important struggle against Islamist extremists.

Lieberman and his Republican neo-con soul mates have used the politics of terror with some effectiveness in the past. But many Democrats now believe that with Lamont's victory in Connecticut as a precursor, voters across this country may finally be prepared to elect candidates who offer thoughtful critiques of this awful war Bush has dragged us into.

With the a recent CNN poll showing 61 percent now opposing the war -- the highest opposition since the war began -- Democrats hoping to regain one or both branches of Congress may have good reason to be optimistic. The same poll also showed that when asked which party's candidate they would vote for if the elections were held today, 52 percent of respondents said the Democratic party's, and 43 percent the Republican's. It's clear. People want change; that want a new direction.

While polls three months out from an election usually mean very little, Lamont's primary victory and these recent poll numbers do suggest that the tide may be turning.

It may be that voters have finally had enough of this administration and the direction George Bush has been "leading" the country. Joe Lieberman and the many other entrenched incumbents, from both the Republican and Democratic parties, who have been supporting this disastrous war of occupation in Iraq, had better beware.

There may be an upheaval this November, the likes of which has not been seen since 1994's GOP-driven Contract with America, and it could not come anytimetoo soon.